Wk. 1 - Ch. 1 notes.docx

MKT400 – Chapter 1: An introduction to consumer behaviour
Introduction
Consumer behaviour: people in the marketplace
- Consumer behaviour – the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups
select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs
and desires
- Consumers can be categorized in terms of demographics and psychographics
- The growth of the web has created thousands of online consumption communities where
members share views and product recommendations
- Using market segmentation strategies means targeting a brand only to a specific group of
consumers rather than to everybody
- Consumer behaviour is an ongoing process:
o Not merely the exchange of money for a good/service
o The exchange in an integral part of marketing, but so are the issues that influence
the consumer before, during, and after a purchase
- The purchaser and user may not be the same person, and there may also be an influencer
Consumers’ impact on marketing strategy
- The purpose of understanding consumer behaviour is to predict the future
Segmenting consumers
- Demographics
o Age
o Gender
o Family structure
o Social class and income
o Ethnicity
o Geography
o Lifestyles: beyond demographics
Relationship marketing: building bonds with consumers
- Marketers who believe in relationship marketing are making an effort to interact with
customers on a regular basis, giving them reasons to maintain a bond with the company
over time
- Relationship building is made easy for us courtesy of database marketing
Marketing’s impact on consumers Marketing and culture
- Popular culture – music, movies, sports, books, celebrities, and other forms of
entertainment consumed by the mass market
- Consumer-generated content – where everyday people voice their opinions – Facebook,
MySpace, YouTube
o Defines the era of so-called Web 2.0, the rebirth of the Internet as an interactive
medium
o We not only see ourselves as consumers of culture, but producers of culture
The meaning of consumption
- People often buy products not for what they do but for what they mean
- The sociological perspective of role theory takes the view that much of consumer behaviour
resembles actions in a play. P